off-road.cc

The Halo Ridge Line 27.5" wheels are a bargain wheelset that has stood the test of time very well indeed. They might be a little heavy but at £240, tubeless taped and ready to ride, we are not going to moan too much about an extra 250g over pricer rivals. 

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Prior to review Halo told us that the Ridge Line wheelset fills a gap in their range, aimed at riders looking to maximise time on the trail and minimise expense.  Only available as 27.5”, the wheels are 100% hand built, supplied pre-taped and are tubeless ready from the box. The brand offers Boost and non-Boost bolt through fitments and the rims offer up a decently wide 30mm internal width, all for under £240.00.

The boost set as we tested wheelset in weighs 2,155g, not the lightest but at £95 cheaper than the DT Swiss M1900’s I tested earlier in the year that weighed in at 1,908g I’m not going to ramble on about the weight. Yep, they are a tad portly but that should be expected at this price level. What matters to me are that they don’t fall apart and that they don’t display the properties of cheese and dent upon impact. After riding the wheels for over three months it’s safe to say the robust wheelset contains no dents and the bearing are still running super smoothly. I’ve treated these wheels like I would any other test wheelset and where I damaged the Halo Vortex wheels last year, the Ridge Line's have stood up to abuse admirably without a ding in sight.

The Ridge Line wheels are built around their RL hubs which use a smooth 5 pawl 30 click engagement drive, a cro-mo axle and freehub as well as sealed bearings, which they say delivers great performance and compatibility. They don’t have the fastest pick up but then again, remember the rear wheel only costs £150 so performance again, balances out with price. You can buy these wheels in Boost, non-boost and for QR with a hub tweak coming soon that will allow the boost rear hub to be converted to 141mm QR - yep, that's a thing....

Elsewhere there are plenty of spokes front and rear (32), the wheels are built with plain gauge spokes, again presumably to keep costs low, also making them easy to get hold of should you need to replace one. The decals on the Ridge Lines are also pretty unassuming which I like, this is a wheelset that will look good on any frame.

There is currently only an option to use a Shimano freehub body though so that might potentially put a few buyers off but I reckon that most people running these wheels will (if not using Shimano) be using a SRAM NX cassette which, of course, uses a Shimano freehub body. Halo confirms my thoughts, these are a budget wheelset for the above two drivetrain options. The only other problem here is that you can't get them for 29ers yet so all you big wheel fans are going to have to wait until late September to get your hands on some. 

With a 30mm wide internal rim width, the Halo Ridge Line’s are built as a good match for the current crop of 2.5” tyres, it shows Halo is on the ball and have their finger on the pulse when designing new products. It’s great that the rims come taped and ready to roll once you’ve added tyres and sealant, that’s added value in an already bargain product. 

• www.halowheels.com

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